Now that I am studying Arabic, I am particularly interested in the Arabic Wikipedia.  The English Wikipedia is enormous with over 2 million articles — most of them of decent length and varying quality.  On the other hand, the Arabic Wikipedia has approximately 65,000 articles.  There are versions of Wikipedia in over 200 languages.  While Arabic is one of the top five languages by number of speakers, it is ranked #30 in terms of number of articles.

Certainly demographic and social factors are important towards explaining why the Arabic Wikipedia has progressed so much slower.  Another reason I think is important is the situation of diglossia, which is where the spoken language that people learn as children differs from the standard, written language.  Beyond that, people in many Arab countries also learn English at a young age.  When people get to the age and level of education to be in the key demographic where they are most likely to contribute to Wikipedia, those people are often equally capable of contributing in English and Arabic.  Many choose to contribute in English.  Contributions to the Arabic Wikipedia come mostly from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan.  Other Arab countries including Morocco and Lebanon have much smaller numbers of contributors to the Arabic Wikipedia, while they do have more contributors to the English Wikipedia.

I am interested in studying this further.  There is a wealth of data available within Wikipedia which can be analyzed to help answer questions.

At Wikimania, I signed up to talk about this and gave a second talk. My presentations are posted here:

• Progress of the Arabic Wikipedia  slides
• Abstract and some details (arwiki)
• DC MapGuide (other talk) - slides
  

Both are very much works in progress.  Especially the analysis of the Arabic Wikipedia contributions vs. English.  I need to run the analysis with more data and explore the data further, as well as conduct more literature review about possible demographic and social factors that are also important.

في برنامج صيفتي, نرحل كل نهاية الأسبوع إلى أماكن متنوع في مصر. بعض الرحلات ليوم واحد فقط, و آخر رحلات لنهاية السبوع كلياً. كانت رحلة خلال نهاية الاسبوع قبل اثنين إلى شبه جزيرة سيناء. كانوا تسعون طالب من برنامجتي و آخر طلاب من الجامعة الامريكية في القاهرة في أوتوبيسين اثنان.

تركنا من الجامعة في يوم الخميس في الساعة الوحد, و نحن أكلنا غداء في الأوتوبيس الذي تكونّ منه سندويتشات و شريخة خضر و قطعة فاكهة و علبة كوكا كولا.

سانت كاترين

كانت طية الأولة دير سانت كاترين حيث نزلنا في فندق. وصلنا في الساعة الثامن, ثم أكلنا عشاء الذي تكونّ منه بوفيه. بعد ذلك نمت مبكراً لأننا يجبنا أن نصحا مبكراً جداً في الصباح من أَجْلِ أَنْ نتسلقَ قمًة الجنوب سيناء و نشاهدَ الشروق. كنتُ على الأقدام لجزء الطريق إلى القمّة, فركبت جمل على آخر الجزء. و وصلنا إلى القمّة قبل الشروق بنصف ساعة الذي كان جميل جداً.

رجعنا إلى الفندق في الساعة الثمانية و أكلنا فطار. ثم ذهبنا إلى الدير لجولة و متحف. بعد ذلك رجعنا إلى الفندق. كنتُ تعبانة جداً ونتيجة لذلك أخذت غفوة ثم تركنا من سانت كاترين إلى شرم الشيخ.

شرم الشيخ

وصلنا بعد بثلاثة ساعات إلى الفندق في شرم الشيخ. نظراً لأنَّي كنت تعبانة جداً, لم أفعل كثير في المساء. أكلت عشاء فمشيت حول وسط المدينة و أنا أستكشفت و تصفحها المحلات

ثم في يوم السبت, صحت في الساعة المابع و كلت فطار في مطعم الفندق. بعد ذلك ذهبت إلى الشاطئ حيث سبحت في البحر قليلاً. كان الماء دافئ و واضح جداً. فجلست على الشاطئ قليلاً ثم رجعت إلى غرفة فندقي لالاستحمام. ذهبت إلى الشاطئ ثانيةً في بعد الظهر لكني بم أسبح في لابحر. ثم بعد العشاء, مشيت حول شرم الشيخ مع أصدقاء و نحن نتمتع بالهواء نظيف و ضافئ و نتطلع في كل شخص و نسمع إلى موسيقى.

صحتُ مبكراً في يوم الأحد حبَّى أذهبَ إلى رأس محمد التي محميتها طبيعية لغوص. هذا جزء أحسن لرحلة لأن كانت السمك و الشعاب المرجانيه مدهشة و جميلة جداً. ثم رجعنا إلى الفندق حيث جبنا أن نلقي أوتوبيس لرحلة العودة إلى القاهرة.

In addition to our courses, we are taking trips on the weekends. This past weekend, we took a day trip to Saqqara and Memphis, which are located not that far from Cairo. We went inside a “mastaba” which is a building used for burial, which has a flat roof and numerous rooms. All the walls within the mastaba have highly detailed artwork, some with color, hieroglyphs, and there is a statue inside. We also went inside one of the smaller pyramids. The best known at Saqqara is the Step (Djoser’s) Pyramid, and there is a mortuary temple. There isn’t near as much to see at Memphis, which is located in the Nile River valley. Saqqara is in the desert, just beyond the valley, which provides an environment better suited to preserve the ancient pyramids and structures. In Memphis, there are a number of statues to Ramses II that survive.

The ride to/from Saqqara was also quite interesting, as we passed through more rural or agricultural areas of the Giza Province. We took a road that followed along an irrigation canal, and passed through a number of smaller towns and villages. Around Saqqara, there also happen to be numerous “carpet schools” where children learn the trades craft.

Today is Jumah (Friday), which is the weekend here. During the afternoon, I went for a walk around Zamalek, found a local grocery store, and figured out where other things are. It’s not so easy to find one’s way here, since the streets follow no logical pattern. We got mixed up coming back and used some Arabic to get directions, including فين (feyn) - where, يمين (yamin) - right; شمال (shamal) - left; طول (tool) - straight or على طول (alaa tool) - straight ahead.

In the evening, I got experience with taking cab rides and dealing with paying the fares. I went with a group to downtown, to take a ride on a felucca - this is the arabic word for a small, wooden sail boat. The word for a regular boat is مركب (markib). Anyway, we know how much the cab fare is for going that distance, and gave the cab driver that amount. When we got out, he argued with us, wanting 2-3 times the normal price. The thing to do is just walk away. That’s how it works here.

After the felucca ride, we went to an Egyptian restaurant (مطعم - mata’m) where I had a vegetable (خضار - khudar) dish with rice (أرز - aruz). I’m used to saying “shukran” - شكرا (thank you) very often. The food was good (كويس - kwayis) and delicious (لذيذ - laziz). Then we asked for the bill. (ممطن الفابورة, لو سمحت - momkin el-fatoora, low samaht) We walked around the Tahrir Square area, looking at the shops. Though the area was very crowded, so we went back.

The American University in Cairo is located in downtown Cairo, near Tahrir Square. The university buildings are not all connected and located together. Instead, there are two “campuses” located down the street from each other. The university is well-protected with security and ID checks when coming in. While at the university this afternoon, I was able to get registered and was placed in the intermediate level.

I am having some difficulty with speaking, due to significant differences in spoken colloquial Egyptian Arabic and the Modern Standard Arabic that I have been learning. For now, I have a small pocket dictionary with Egyptian colloquial to assist me, and slowly getting the hang of it. When courses start, one of them will be focused on colloquial Arabic, so I should get much better at it soon.

I left “yesterday” - June 2 in the late afternoon/early evening from Washington, D.C. Then, I arrived in London at 11 a.m. (local time) on June 3, where I had a layover of a few hours. Then boarded an EgyptAir flight around 4:00 pm, which was a tad late departing. We arrived here by 10 pm, but there is a 2 hour time difference from London, so that flight was really only 4 hours long.

My flight from London was on a huge jumbo jet — a Boeing 777-200. As always, I expected we would end up deboarding through a jetway and into the airport. That’s not how they deboard here. Even with huge jumbo jets, we got to walk down stairs, onto the tarmac, and onto a shuttle bus that took us to the terminal. It appears they do things this way for nearly all flights, at least from what I could tell from all the planes (of various sizes) on the tarmac. I have done this in the U.S. with tiny commuter flights/aircraft, but this was different. But, once into the terminal, things were very easy and I did not need to walk far.

Coming through immigration and customs was extremely easy, as I already obtained my visa ahead of time. The officials briefly looked my passport and let me go, and I didn’t have to stop at customs. I thought they might want all my computer equipment items documented, to have a list to check against when I leave. Taxes on electronics in Egypt are very high, and they don’t want people sneaking stuff in and selling it here. But, in my situation, they didn’t care and I made it through immigration and customs very quickly.

I had a ride from the airport to where I am staying in Cairo, though it was a long ride. In Egypt and much of the Middle East, the way people drive is MUCH different, with disregard for any traffic laws and safety. People zip in and out, cut each other off, don’t stay within the lane markings, they go fast, and using headlights is optional at night. So, it’s not a huge surprise that there was a traffic accident on the highway, into the city from the airport. There was a very long backup on the highway, but I finally got to my place in Cairo after midnight (June 4).

This video clip comes from BBC Arabic, which talks about the Roman Catholic Church, which has built a church in Doha, Qatar:

Anyway, while walking around the conference center, I noticed someone left a box on a table which had Arabic writing on the outside. This was completely unexpected, so I went to take a look. The box was full of books and journals, with a sign saying “free, please take these”. The books belonged to someone associated with the Kuwait Geographical Society, but they wanted to get rid of them. Of course, I didn’t think many people at the conference knew Arabic, yet alone would want the books. So, I took a bunch and came back a while later, and the rest of them were still there. So, I took all of them.

(If the person who left them reads this, THANK YOU! شكرا)

I’m working on one of the books, which is entitled العالم الثالث - مشكلات و فضايا, which translates as “Third World: Problems and Issues”. I’m getting so far as reading the preface which talks about the purpose of the book.

Some of the words that I am learning, as I read include:

مؤتمر (mu’tamar) - conference, convention

حضور (hudur) - attendance

لقاء (liqa’) - meeting

تنمية (tanmiya) - development

اقتصاد (iqtasad) - economy

زراعة (zira’a) - agriculture

حاجة (haja) - need

نشر (nashara) - to publish

مسلسل (musalsal) - series

As helpful as it is to learn the vocabulary, especially vocabulary related to a topic I’m involved in, it is also helpful to see the writing style used. The author writes in the past tense, using كان (kan) and كانت (kana), which means “was”. For example, كان جميع or “everyone was …”.

This translates as saying “I am studying Arabic, because I will be traveling to Egypt this summer.” Then, I was able to say “shukran. da a’la shehnak” - this means in colloquial Egyptian Arabic, “thanks, this is for you” (my cab fare and tip)

I’m sure I wasn’t speaking perfect Arabic, but did pretty well I think. The driver wasn’t sure that I could speak English, which of course I can, but he understood what I said in Arabic and I could understand him. In all, this was great practice and helps in building my confidence. I am somewhat hesitant to speak up in Arabic, because I know my vocabulary, grammar, and grasp of colloquial Arabic is still limited.

Some words to learn so far, with the first part of the chapter introducing the time and setting of the story:

Thus, we understand that the novel is starts out in 1930 in the central United States (Oklahoma). Things had been good and prosperous for farmers, with fertile soil and rich crops. But in that June (1930), the conditions suddenly turned with drought (little rain fell) and the sun as a “blazing ball of fire” that turned the soil dry and dusty.